Wired networks, such as cable-based television networks, cable-based Internet service provider (ISP) systems, and wired telephone systems, may suffer from signal degradation due to faults in wires that deliver services in such systems. Such wire faults may include physical damage to the wires (also known as cable damage) and signal leakage (for example, due to improper shielding of wires). Cable damage may cause an impedance mismatch in the system and signal leakage may cause interference in the system.
Such wire faults may impact service quality. For example, in a television network, such as a cable-based television network, an impedance mismatch (which may be caused, for example, due to cable damage) may create a micro-reflection which may result in ghosting of the video. That is, a second image, which is offset in time and amplitude, may appear to the right of the incident signal.
Wire faults may also cause service quality problems to arise in other types of wired networks. For example, for Internet service provider (ISP) systems, wire faults may cause packets to be dropped and throughput to be slowed down. In telephone networks, wire faults may cause micro-reflections which result in dropped packets and the occurrence of voice interrupts and echoes.
Wire fault detection has previously been a laborious process. For example, where cable damage is suspected, a long stretch of cable may be manually inspected in order to identify the location of the fault. This can be particularly time consuming in networks where cables are buried.
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